Case Study | DFP Small Business

AsktheBuilder.com used DoubleClick for Publishers Small Business to increase revenue and take control of its ad delivery. For nearly 30 years, Tim Carter has been building. What started as simple work on old fixer-uppers has steadily evolved into a real estate, remodeling, and media career. A master carpenter, licensed master plumber, master roof cutter and licensed real estate broker, Tim began sharing his tools and tips with homeowners in 1993 via AsktheBuilder, his syndicated weekly newspaper column. Two years later, Tim took his home improvement advice online, and AsktheBuilder.com launched in November 1995. About AsktheBuilder.com • www.askthebuilder.com • Cincinnati, OH • Home improvement website

Goals • Reduce manual ad coding and management • Gain more control of ad serving • Improve flexibility of ad delivery options

Approach • Served 80-90% of ad inventory via DFP Small Business • Used geotargeting options to control ad delivery • Used integrated AdSense feature to increase revenue from remnant inventory

Results • 65% of total business revenue comes from online advertising • 70% of online revenue comes from AdSense • Grew ad revenue by 18% over previous year • Found new opportunities with directly sold ads • Optimized revenue from remnant inventory

“I had seen the Internet for the first time two months earlier,” Tim recalls. “I knew instantly the Web would be enormous.” His instincts were right, and AsktheBuilder.com has since grown to offer hundreds of videos and thousands of articles helping homeowners improve their handiwork. “It makes no difference if visitors are DIY’ers or having a pro come do the work,” says Tim. “The site is for any homeowner or renter who needs to discover how things work around their home and want to learn how to do things the right way.” A new solution With 50,000 unique visitors per day and 3 million pageviews per month, AsktheBuilder.com creates revenue through online advertising and sales of electronic products. But ad serving initially proved a laborious task for Tim and his team. “We had to hard code in the ads. It was very painful,” he recalls. “We had very little flexibility. I wanted to have better control of the ad spaces on my site.” So when he heard about Google’s new DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business solution, which combines the best of Google and DoubleClick intelligence, design and usability, Tim decided to give it a try. DFP Small Business is a free, hosted ad serving and revenue optimization solution. With advanced features such as streamlined ad trafficking and granular reporting, DFP Small Business offers a complete toolkit to easily sell ads on your site directly to advertisers while also working dynamically to help you get the most money from inventory you sell through partners like AdSense and ad networks. The right set of tools With DFP Small Business, Tim found the control and flexibility he had sought in an ad serving solution. “I was very intrigued about being able to use DFP Small Business to sell geotargeted ad spaces to tens of thousands of companies all across the USA,” says Tim.

“DFP Small Business allows us to automatically control ad budget, CPMs, number of ad impressions per day, and more. In other words, DFP Small Business is an ad server on steroids. It has enormous power and flexibility.”

About DFP Small Business DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) Small Business is an easy-to-use yet powerful ad serving solution that helps website publishers manage and grow their online advertising business. Featuring streamlined ad trafficking, inventory management, revenue optimization, and granular reporting, DFP Small Business equips publishers with a complete toolkit for ad delivery and revenue optimization across their directly-sold ads, AdSense, and ad networks. For more information visit: www.google.com/dfp/sb

About Google AdSense Google AdSense™ is a program enabling online businesses to earn revenue from serving ads precisely targeted to their site. Through AdSense, website publishers can also provide their visitors with site search and Google web search, earning revenue through Google ads on the search results pages. AdSense publishers are a part of the Google Network, which includes many of the Top 100 Media Metrix sites such as AOL, About.com, Amazon, Ask.com, and Lycos. For more information visit: www.google.com/adsense

In his DFP Small Business toolkit, Tim has several favorite go-to tools and features. In addition to geotargeting options and budget control, he also appreciates being able to easily perform A/B testing on ads, and using integrated Google AdSense to fill unsold inventory. “The impact of the integrated AdSense feature has been very positive. It’s opened new ad opportunities,” he says, noting that about 70 percent of AsktheBuilder.com’s online advertising revenue comes from Google AdSense. Constructive results Since implementing DFP Small Business, AsktheBuilder.com uses it to serve 80 to 90 percent of its ad impressions. Tim and his team have found new advantages from using DFP Small Business to manage their directly sold ads. “We’re selling ads that we simply couldn’t offer before,” explains Tim. “It’s given us unlimited sales opportunity,” he says, adding that they are also able to manage their remnant inventory by autofilling with AdSense or other ad networks. AsktheBuilder.com has also seen a boost in revenue after adopting DFP Small Business. “Sixty-five percent of our total business revenue comes from online advertising, and our ad revenue is up about 18 percent over 2009,” he notes. Well-equipped Though he may have an assortment of equipment in his real-life tool belt, DFP Small Business is one tool Tim will be sure to keep handy in his publisher’s tool belt. “It’s allowed me to offer more to advertisers who want to grab the eyeballs of my visitors,” he says, “and it’s allowed me to look more professional in the marketplace. If I didn’t use DFP Small Business, I’d look like a cottage industry instead of an industry leader,” he says. “It’s making my wildest dreams come true.”

“DFP Small Business is an ad server on steroids. It has enormous power and flexibility.” — Tim Carter, founder, AsktheBuilder.com

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